Cynthia Weil Quotes

I am quite an insecure person, and I think that, like any director, if I'm asked about my vision for a piece, I feel very vulnerable.

Every time I do a play, it's as if I've never done one before. I'm always confused. I always am convinced I'm going to be fired. I'm like, 'I don't remember how to act. I don't know how to do this.' And, it's just a very slow process, and then, all of a sudden, it's just there one day. I still don't understand how it happens.

You're reluctant to give too much away when you're going to put it out there for other people. It's harder writing your truest fears and loves and guilts, because you're not sure when you're writing the right story.

Everybody faces a blank piece of paper, no matter what they've written or painted or composed before. I can't imagine approaching every single new project with-without doubt.

I know certainly, when one job draws to a close, that I feel I'm simply never going to work again. No one will ever want me for anything ever again. I think that's a vulnerable moment in every actor's life, and it happens every time you finish a film.

For a long time I managed to think two things simultaneously, that I am actually a good playwright, and that the next time I write a play I will be revealed as someone who is no good at all.

I have tried to preserve in my relationship to the film the same closeness and intimacy that exists between a painter and his canvas.

It's very funny because every time I make a movie, and I've heard this re-echoed by other filmmakers and actors I have worked with, you kind of feel like you're naked again. You have to figure it all out from scratch, as if you had never done it before.

Writers are not just people who sit down and write. They hazard themselves. Every time you compose a book your composition of yourself is at stake.

People think that if you've written a book and somebody's given you a pat on the back then, you know, it's all - you're all settled, you know? You're going to be fine. I know that if I'm not confused, and really afraid, my work isn't going to be any good.

As an actor, you have an accumulated knowledge base. But there's also something about it that every time you really feel like you're doing it for the first time; you have no idea whether you're capable of it.

When you're on stage singing, you're naked. Your voice is something very intimate, and that's why I'm scared every time before I perform. It doesn't matter if I'm singing for a king or a queen or the Pope, it's enough to be in front of anybody. I suffer, but I can't do anything about it.

Pretty much every time I try something different or do something in front of a live audience, I truly think they might throw peanuts at me.

I still see myself on TV and think, 'Oh my God, I'm on a television, and there are millions of people watching,' and I get really nervous and embarrassed and insecure.

There's one thing now that I experience every day when I'm making a film. I get up and think to myself, 'Am I going to be able to do it today?' I figure as long as I have that fear, I'll be alright.

Sometimes when I'm in the editing room and there's a new person there, like a music editor or a post person that I don't really know, I'm like, 'Oh, you shouldn't be in here. This is too personal - you can't watch this.' But then I'm like, hey dummy, you're about to show this to the whole world.

Anything good that I have written has, at some point during its composition, left me feeling uneasy and afraid. It has seemed, for a moment at least, to put me at risk.

I have moments when I'll stare at a script and say, 'I don't know what I'm doing!' But then I push myself into that feeling because I think panic is important.

Pretty much everything I've written is a mix of excitement and fear.

I think, as an actor, you're constantly confronted with your fear of sticking your neck out.

I'm always nervous when I start a new picture.

I have a hard time sometimes watching my own work.

I've gotten to work with people like Kristin Chenoweth and Chita Rivera... Seeing their process is so interesting. Seeing that these people aren't immortal - that they go through the same motions as we do and ask for feedback and break down scenes... They have to work, too, and that's really exciting to see.

Every time I do something or release something or announce a new project, there's always that fear that it won't go well.

For me, I have trouble working with people just because I sort of have trust issues when it comes to creative endeavors.